Landholders were given a new perspective on the Gwydir and Macintyre Rivers earlier this month with a series of kayak tours in Inverell and Bundarra.
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Wildlife ecologist Phil Spark caught the creatures living in the rivers to give attendees a hands on experience. “I learned more in that one day than in three years,” Inverell’s Heinrich Haussler said.
On Tuesday, February 14, Phil showed tour goers the wildlife around Lake Inverell and upstream in the Macintyre River. In a time frame of just nine hours, he caught 66 Macquarie turtles.
“What we have at Lake Inverell and the feeding Macintyre River is to a large percentage not known by the Inverell people. I have been kayaking for three years in this area but Phil's knowledge was mind blowing,” Heinrich said.
“I feel that this needs to be known to as many as possible. That will certainly help to protect and preserve it but it will also make people aware of one of Inverell's greatest treasures,” he said.
The field day on the Gwydir River on Wednesday was a project run by Kelly Twigge to raise awareness of the threatened Bell’s Turtle.
The Bell's Turtle is found in shallow and in deep pools flowing through the granitic bedrock of the Namoi and Gwydir Rivers. It has been found at only half a dozen sites, and where it occurs it is reasonably abundant. It lives mostly in the river and hardly ever ventures away from this habitat.